2014 Countdown to Kickoff

MYERSTOWN — Started off the L-L football camp tour bright and early Monday at Elco, where coach Robert Miller was putting his Raiders through the paces.

Could be a rebuilding year of sorts for Miller’s bunch, who went 4-6 last season and lost a ton of firepower to graduation, including leading receivers Derek Miller and Phil Kline and 1,000-yard back — and TD machine — Cameron Strause, the reigning Section 3 Back of the Year.

The good news: Junior QB Jeff Martin is back in the saddle, one year after throwing for 2,086 yards and 16 touchdowns, piloting the Raiders’ spread attack.

All eyes on Martin — the subject of this camp tour video — to see he how he adapts to working with some new skill kids.

A spirited special teams session, as Miller searched for his punter. A couple of kids jumped in there and took some boots, as the center got a workout and the o-line kids worked on blocking in punt situations.

Hey, not the most exciting part of practice, right? But ask any coach and he’ll tell you how important special teams are.

Afterward, Martin and his wideouts put in some extra work, ironing out their pass patterns — and you can never do that enough.

No cover corners. No safeties. No linebackers dropping into coverage. No d-ends blitzing off the edge. Just Martin and his merry band of wideouts pitching and catching, with Miller keeping an eye on the proceedings while snapping to Martin.

By the way, Martin has a cannon; he can get the ball out of there in a hurry, with a ton of zip on it. And while some of his wideouts will be making their full-time debut this season, Martin makes their jobs easier by delivering strikes — strike after strike after strike.

That was a joy to watch.

ELCO EXPECTATIONS

The Raiders are 10-10 over their last two seasons. Ten up. Ten Down. And no playoff payoff to show for it. No Garden Spot this time around; Spartans shuffled off to Section 2 after going 10-2 in league games the last two seasons. Ephrata, 0-10 a year ago, comes down to Section 3.

Defending champ Donegal is still there. And the Raiders will get much-anticipated backyard rival league games vs. Annville-Cleona and Northern Lebanon.

Win those, and Elco could be there in the end — and maybe, just maybe, get over the playoff hump and get a postseason bid.